Rumors No More

Posted: March 14th, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | Comments Off on Rumors No More

The new league year officially began today and that meant the moves were no longer rumors. They became real.

At least some of them did.

Things began with a big surprise.

Wow. Everything I heard indicated Bradham was headed out of town. The Eagles didn’t have great options at LB so I think bringing him back is a great move. There was no question for me of wanting him back. It was all about the money. That is a big contract, but we’ll have to wait and see what the exact numbers are. I’m glad the Eagles were able to work things out with their star LB. They don’t win the Super Bowl without him running the middle of the defense.

Keeping Bradham and adding Corey Nelson means there will be change at LB, just not the one we expected. The team is shopping Mychal Kendricks. His salary looks pretty reasonable right now so my guess is that they’ll find a taker. The Eagles won’t get a great deal for Kendricks, but they need draft picks and also still need to clear cap room so I think they’ll get something done.

Now for the bad news.

I don’t think the team could afford both guys. You can’t give everyone everything. Robinson played for the league minimum last year. This year he’ll make $5M. Talk about making the most out of your opportunity. He better send Howie Roseman, Jim Schwartz and Corey Undlin Christmas cards this year.

The Eagles have some internal options for the slot, but may be looking at cheaper free agent options, as well as considering draft options. We’ll see what happens there. Not all problems get solved on day one.

Fran Duffy has a piece up showing Bennett, Worley and Nelson in action. They can all impact the passing game, which you might have noticed was an issue in the Super Bowl. The Eagles have good depth at some key spots.

As Jeff McLane pointed out, Halota Ngata is not official yet.

Glad to hear this isn’t another Frank Gore situation. If there are any issues, it will be with the Eagles medical staff not signing off on him. I don’t anticipate that with Ngata coming off a biceps injury. That’s nothing like a torn ligament or degenerative/arthritic condition.

https://twitter.com/Beau_Allen/status/974054274907955200

I’m gonna miss that guy.

The Eagles have now lost three players who will all be making at least $5M per year. That should help them with trying to get comp picks in 2019. We’ll have to wait and see what else happens before we know anything for sure.

There aren’t a whole lot of good rumors right now.

Maclin was cut by the Ravens today. He would make some sense for the Eagles, if they want another year to get Mack Hollins and Shelton Gibson ready to become key contributors on offense. Maclin isn’t the player he was when he left a few years back, but he is still a good route-runner with reliable hands. He can play in the slot or outside. He doesn’t have explosive speed, but still runs well enough.

It is possible the Eagles want to go young at WR and will focus on Hollins and Gibson. We’ll see how the team plays things in free agency and the draft to get a better idea of just what the plan is.

If Ngata passes his physical and the Eagles are able to trade Curry and Kendricks, this will be a great start to the 2018 offseason. Not perfect, mind you. But great. The Eagles are loaded on the defensive line. They are deep and talented. The team has a strong set of LBs and all of them can cover. That’s critical in today’s game. The secondary has plenty of talent. The Eagles need to work on depth at Safety and they need to figure out the slot, but there is a lot of talent in place.

Expect more news on Thursday, with at least an update on Ngata. Howie is working the phones to see what is possible on the trade front. It is also possible the team could do more free agent shopping.

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